View of a physical space augmented with social media content originating from a geo-location of the physical space

ABSTRACT

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for augmenting a view of a physical space of one or more geographically definable locations (“geo-locations”) with social media and/or other content originating from the one or more geo-locations. Generally speaking, the system may include a computing device having one or more processors programmed to augment (e.g., add to, overlay, embed, etc.) the view of the physical space of a geo-location with social media content, thereby allowing a user to view a physical space at a geo-location along with social media content that was created from the geo-location.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/800,951, filed Mar. 15, 2013, which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for augmenting a view of aphysical space at a geographically definable location with social mediaand/or other content originating from the geographically definablelocation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The availability of content such as videos, audio files, photos, text,and/or other content over networks such as the Internet has grown atimpressive rates. Many Internet and other online service providers makethis type of content available to enable users to post and share suchcontent through their services. However, various limitations exist withrespect to how this vast amount of information can be effectivelymonitored and/or selectively displayed.

Because of the vast amount of information and different ways in which tocommunicate with users, it can be difficult to communicate with creatorsof the content.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for augmenting a view of aphysical space of one or more geographically definable locations(“geo-locations”) with social media and/or other content originatingfrom the one or more geo-locations. Generally speaking, the system mayinclude a computing device having one or more processors programmed toaugment (e.g., add to, overlay, embed, etc.) the view of the physicalspace of a geo-location with social media content, thereby allowing auser to view a physical space at a geo-location along with social mediacontent that was created from the geo-location.

The one or more processors may be programmed by one or more computerprogram modules. For example, the one or more processors may beconfigured to execute a geofeed creation module, a content contextmodule, a reality context module, an augmented reality module, anadministration module, a communication module, a user interface module,and/or other modules. The geofeed creation module may be configured toobtain the social media content from one or more social media contentproviders.

In some implementations, the content context module may be configured toobtain (e.g., receive, retrieve, or determine) contextual informationthat describes the context in which the social media content wascreated. The contextual information for the content may include ageo-location, an ambient condition (e.g., temperature), an altitude, amotion or orientation based on sensor measurements from a device used tocreate the content, and/or other information that describes the contextin which the social media content was created. Content context modulemay be configured to obtain the contextual information from the contentitself, such as when the contextual information is available asExchangeable Image File (“EXIF”) data embedded in images, from thesocial media content provider, and/or from other sources (e.g., from auser who created the content).

The computer may be configured to determine social media content that isto augment the view of the physical space based on one or more of thecontextual information. The social media content may be filtered inand/or out using various geofeed parameters (e.g., hashtags,identification of types of content, content providers, etc.) describedherein. Thus, a user may indicate that certain content be included forand/or excluded from consideration for augmenting the view of thephysical space.

In some implementations, the reality context module may be configured toobtain contextual information that describes the context of a view of aphysical space. The view of the physical space may include an imagebeing displayed in real-time through a camera lens (e.g., through adisplay that displays a scene being captured by imaging sensors of acamera), an image that is stored and displayed (e.g., a photograph),and/or other views of a physical space. Contextual information thatdescribes the context of a view of a physical space may includeinformation similar to contextual information that describes socialmedia content. For example, the contextual information that describesthe context of the view of the physical space may include a geo-locationof the physical space (e.g., a current location for real-timeimplementations and a location at which the view was taken for storedimplementations) and/or other contextual information.

Reality context module may be configured to obtain the realitycontextual information from real-time measurements/information (e.g.,location information from location sensors, temperature from temperaturesensors, etc.). In some implementations, the reality context module mayobtain the location based on image recognition of image features such asbuildings, structures, and/or other identifiable objects taken from theview of the physical space.

In some implementations, the augmented reality module may compare one ormore of the content contextual information from content context moduleand one or more of the reality contextual information from realitycontext module. The augmented reality module may determine a match(which may be exact or inexact) between the content contextualinformation and the reality contextual information from reality contextmodule.

Upon determining a match, the augmented reality module may augment theview of the physical space of the geo-location. For example, a locationat which the social media content was created may be compared to ageo-location of the physical space being viewed. The augmented realitymodule may determine that the social media content was created from thegeo-location of the physical space being viewed and augment the view ofthe physical space with the social media content. Other contextualinformation may be used instead of or in addition to the locationinformation to determine whether social media content should be used toaugment the view of the physical space.

Some or all of the processing related to the content context module, thereality context module, and the augmented reality module may beperformed at a device used to display the view of the physical spaceand/or at another device.

By way of example only, in operation, a user may look at a display ofthe user's mobile device that displays a view of a building and itssurroundings at a geo-location, where the view is imaged with a cameraof the user's mobile device (the view may be a picture/video or a liveshot of the building and its surroundings). At the mobile device and/orat a remote device, reality contextual information that describes thegeo-location may be obtained and social media content may be identifiedbased on a comparison between content contextual information and thereality contextual information. For example, the mobile device and/orthe remote device may identify social media content that was createdfrom the geo-location of the building and its surroundings being viewed.The mobile device may then augment the view of the buildings and itssurroundings with the identified social media content, thereby enhancingthe user's view of the physical space.

These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the systemand/or method disclosed herein, as well as the methods of operation andfunctions of the related elements of structure and the combination ofparts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent uponconsideration of the following description and the appended claims withreference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of thisspecification, wherein like reference numerals designate correspondingparts in the various figures. It is to be expressly understood, however,that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and descriptiononly and are not intended as a definition of the limits of theinvention. As used in the specification and in the claims, the singularform of “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural referents unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system configured to augment a view of a physicalspace of one or more geo-locations with social media and other contentoriginating from the one or more geo-locations, according to an aspectof the invention.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example of a user interface for displaying anaugmented view of a physical space of one or more geo-locations withsocial media and other content originating from the one or moregeo-locations, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example of a user interface for displaying anaugmented view of a physical space of one or more geo-locations withsocial media and other content originating from the one or moregeo-locations, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 2C illustrates an example of a user interface for displaying anaugmented view of a physical space of one or more geo-locations withsocial media and other content originating from the one or moregeo-locations, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process for augmenting a view of a physical spaceof geo-locations with social media and other content originating fromthe one or more geo-location, according to an aspect of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process of comparing the context of content withthe context of a physical space to be augmented with the content,according to an aspect of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 of targeted messaging, workflowmanagement, and digital rights management for geofeeds, according to anaspect of the invention. A geofeed includes a collection of content(also referred to herein as “geofeed content”), aggregated from variouscontent providers, that is relevant to a geographically definablelocation (hereinafter, a “geo-location”). The content providers mayinclude, for example, social media providers (e.g., FACEBOOK, TWITTER,INSTAGRAM, FLICKR, etc.), online knowledge databases, and/or otherproviders that can distribute content that may be relevant to ageo-location. The social media providers may include social mediaplatforms that allow a user who is registered with the social mediaplatform to upload content and share the content with others who havesigned up to be associated with the user.

The geo-location may be specified by a boundary, geo coordinates (e.g.,latitude, longitude, altitude/depth), an address, a school, a placename, a point of interest, a zip code, a city, a state, a country,and/or other information that can spatially identify an area. Thecontent may be generated by content sources such as individuals,corporations, and/or other entities that may create content. As usedhereinafter, “a location,” “a geo-location,” “a geographically definablelocation,” and similar language is not limited to a single location butmay also refer to one or more such locations.

In many instances the content can be automatically tagged withinformation. The information may include a user identification,date/time information related to the content (e.g., a date and/or timethat indicates when the content was created, uploaded, etc.), geographicinformation that specifies a location where the content was created,uploaded, etc., and/or other information. For example, cameras equippedwith a Global Positioning Satellite (“GPS”) unit and/or otherlocation-aware system may embed into an image file latitude/longitudecoordinates that indicate where a picture was taken. In addition, modernhand-held devices such as smartphones may be equipped with a GPS sensor,which allows users to generate content with their devices and share thecontent through a plurality of social networks and other providers.Moreover, some devices allow users to manually input the foregoing andother information for embedding into the content. Furthermore, editingsoftware may allow a user to embed or otherwise manually and/orautomatically include information along with the content after thecontent was created.

System 100 may include a computer 110, a geofeed API 111, a contentconsumer device 130, provider APIs 140, content providers 150, and/orother components. In some embodiments, computer 110 may include one ormore processors 120 configured to perform some or all of a functionalityof a plurality of modules, which may be stored in a memory 121. Forexample, the one or more processors 120 may be configured to execute ageofeed creation module 112, a content context module 113, a realitycontext module 114, an augmented reality module 115, an administrationmodule 116, a communication module 117, a user interface module 118,and/or other modules 119. Geofeed API 111 may be used to interface withcomputer 110 to interface with computer 110 in relation to the geofeeds.

Geofeed creation module 112 may be configured to create one or moregeofeeds, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/284,455(issued on Feb. 18, 2014 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,655,873), filed Oct. 28,2011, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AGGREGATING AND DISTRIBUTINGGEOTAGGED CONTENT,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/619,888(issued on Nov. 26, 2013 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,595,317), filed Sep. 14,2012, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING, ACCESSING, ANDUPDATING GEOFEEDS” both of which are incorporated by reference herein intheir entireties.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/708,516 (issued on Feb. 18, 2014 asU.S. Pat. No. 8,655,983), filed Dec. 7, 2012, entitled “SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR LOCATION MONITORING BASED ON ORGANIZED GEOFEEDS,” U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/708,466 (issued on Jan. 28, 2014 as U.S. Pat.No. 8,639,767), filed Dec. 7, 2012, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORGENERATING AND MANAGING GEOFEED-BASED ALERTS,” U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/708,404 (issued on Jul. 9, 2013 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,484,224),filed Dec. 7, 2012, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RANKING GEOFEEDS ANDCONTENT WITHIN GEOFEEDS,” co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/788,843, filed Mar. 7, 2013, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORDIFFERENTIALLY PROCESSING A LOCATION INPUT FOR CONTENT PROVIDERS THATUSE DIFFERENT LOCATION INPUT FORMATS,” U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/788,760 (issued on Dec. 17, 2013 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,612,533), filedMar. 7, 2013, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING AND MANAGINGGEOFEEDS,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/788,909 (issued onSep. 30, 2014 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,850,531), filed Mar. 7, 2013, entitled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TARGETED MESSAGING, WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT, ANDDIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT FOR GEOFEEDS,” are all incorporated byreference in their entireties herein.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/843,949 filed on Mar. 15, 2013(issued on Oct. 14, 2014 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,862,589) entitled “SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR PREDICTING A GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN OF CONTENT AND ACCURACY OFGEOTAGS RELATED TO CONTENT OBTAINED FROM SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER CONTENTPROVIDERS,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/843,832 filed onMar. 15, 2013 (issued on Sep. 30, 2014 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,849,935)entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING THREE-DIMENSIONAL GEOFEEDS,ORIENTATION-BASED GEOFEEDS, AND GEOFEEDS BASED ON AMBIENT CONDITIONS,”are all incorporated by reference in their entireties herein.

Geofeed creation module 112 may be configured to generate one or moregeofeeds based on content that is relevant to one or more geographicallydefinable locations (“geo-locations”). The geofeed creation module mayformat requests that specify one or more geo-locations specifically forindividual ones of the plurality of content providers and aggregate thecontent to form a geofeed. In some embodiments, geofeed creation module112 may create a single geofeed having a plurality of geo-locations thatare grouped with respect to one another. In other embodiments, geofeedcreation module 112 may create multiple distinct geofeeds, which mayeach be associated with one or more geo-locations and may be groupedwith respect to one another. In these embodiments, each set ofindividual content may correspond to a single geofeed.

For example, geofeed creation module 112 may format requests toindividual ones of a plurality of APIs 140 (illustrated in FIG. 1 as API140A, 140B, . . . , 140N). The provider APIs 140 may facilitatereceiving content from corresponding content providers 150 (illustratedin FIG. 1 as content providers 150A, 150B, 150C). In some embodiments,geofeed creation module 110 may format a request directly for contentprovider 150N without using a corresponding API. A content consumerdevice 130 may request and view geofeeds created by geofeed creationmodule 112. The formatting instructions may be stored in and recalledfrom a memory such as provider database 134. Preferences for creating,viewing, and/or managing information related to geofeeds may be storedin and recalled from a memory such as user profile database 132.

In some embodiments, geofeed creation module 112 may generate a geofeeddefinition that describes a geofeed such that a geofeed may bedynamically generated based on the geofeed definition. For example, thegeofeed definition may include the geo-location specification, one ormore geofeed parameters used to filter content aggregated from contentproviders 150, and/or other information related to the geofeed that canbe used to aggregate content from various content providers. Forexample, the one or geofeed parameters may be used to view onlyparticular types of content, content from particular content providers,and/or other parameter by which to filter in or out content. The geofeeddefinition may be identified by a geofeed identifier and stored (e.g.,in database 136) for later retrieval so that a content consumer orothers may select and obtain a geofeed that was previously defined.

In some embodiments, geofeed creation module 112 may store the geofeed(e.g., in database 136). For example, geofeed creation module 112 may beconfigured to store the geofeed by aggregating content from contentproviders 150 in relation to the geofeed and store the content inassociation with a geofeed identifier and/or a geofeed definition.

In some embodiments, geofeed creation module 112 may use the credentialsof a user for social media or other platform to access content. In thismanner, geofeed creation module 112 may obtain content from a contentprovider using the credentials of the user. For example, geofeedcreation module 112 may obtain from the user a username and password(with permission from the user) for the user's TWITTER account andobtain content from TWITTER to which the user has access.

In some implementations, content context module 113 may be configured toobtain (e.g., receive, retrieve, or determine) contextual informationthat describes the context in which the social media content wascreated. The contextual information for the content may include ageo-location, an ambient condition (e.g., temperature), an altitude, amotion or orientation based on sensor measurements from a device used tocreate the content, and/or other information that describes the contextin which the social media content was created. Content context modulemay be configured to obtain the contextual information from the contentitself, such as when the contextual information is available asExchangeable Image File (“EXIF”) data embedded in images, from thesocial media content provider, and/or from other sources (e.g., from auser who created the content).

The computer may be configured to determine social media content that isto augment the view of the physical space based on one or more of thecontextual information. The social media content may be filtered inand/or out using various geofeed parameters (e.g., hashtags,identification of types of content, content providers, etc.) describedherein. Thus, a user may indicate that certain content be included forand/or excluded from consideration for augmenting the view of thephysical space.

In some implementations, reality context module 114 may be configured toobtain contextual information that describes the context of a view of aphysical space. The view of the physical space may include an imagebeing displayed in real-time through a camera lens (e.g., through adisplay that displays a scene being captured by imaging sensors of acamera), an image that is stored and displayed (e.g., a photograph),and/or other views of a physical space. Contextual information thatdescribes the context of a view of a physical space may includeinformation similar to contextual information that describes socialmedia content. For example, the contextual information that describesthe context of the view of the physical space may include a geo-locationof the physical space (e.g., a current location for real-timeimplementations and a location at which the view was taken for storedimplementations) and/or other contextual information.

Reality context module 114 may be configured to obtain the realitycontextual information from real-time measurements/information (e.g.,location information from location sensors, temperature from temperaturesensors, etc.). In some implementations, reality context module 114 mayobtain the location based on image recognition of image features such asbuildings, structures, and/or other identifiable objects taken from theview of the physical space.

In some implementations, augmented reality module 115 may be configuredto compare one or more of the content contextual information fromcontent context module and one or more of the reality contextualinformation from reality context module. Augmented reality module 115may determine a match (which may be exact or inexact) between thecontent contextual information and the reality contextual informationfrom reality context module.

Upon determining a match, augmented reality module 115 may augment theview of the physical space of the geo-location. For example, a locationat which the social media content was created may be compared to ageo-location of the physical space being viewed. Augmented realitymodule 115 may determine that the social media content was created fromthe geo-location of the physical space being viewed and augment the viewof the physical space with the social media content. Other contextualinformation may be used instead of or in addition to the locationinformation to determine whether social media content should be used toaugment the view of the physical space.

In some implementations, for example, augmented reality module 115 maybe configured to compare other contextual information and/orcombinations of contextual information such as, for example, ambientconditions, orientations, motion (e.g., motion of a device such as acamera device used to create the content), altitude, and/or othercontextual information.

Some or all of the processing related to content context module 113,reality context module 114, and augmented reality module 115 may beperformed at a device used to display the view of the physical spaceand/or at another device.

In some embodiments, administration module 116 may be configured tomanage user accounts, set user roles such as security access roles,and/or perform other administrative operations. For example, theadministration module may be used to define which users may generatemessages using the unified message module, generate workflow items, viewworkflow items of others, annotate content, enter into agreements withrespect to ownership rights of the content, and/or set other user roles.

In some embodiments, communication module 117 may be configured to sharea geofeed via a content provider such as a social media provider, email,SMS text, and/or other communication channels. In some embodiments, thecommunication module may be configured to communicate a geofeed viavarious feeds such as Really Simple Syndication (“RSS”) and ATOM feeds,a vanity Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”) using a name of the geofeed(e.g., a name assigned by the content consumer), and/or othercommunication channels.

In some embodiments, the user interface module 118 may be configured togenerate user interfaces that allow viewing and interaction withaugmented views of physical spaces. Examples of such user interfaces areillustrated in FIGS. 2A-C. User interface module 118 may also presentvarious displays for sending/receiving messages, managing workflows,managing information related to ownership rights of the content,displaying geofeeds, requesting geofeeds, and/or otherwise displayinginformation related to the content.

Those having skill in the art will recognize that computer 110 andcontent consumer device 130 may each comprise one or more processors,one or more interfaces (to various peripheral devices or components),memory, one or more storage devices, and/or other components coupled viaa bus. The memory may comprise random access memory (RAM), read onlymemory (ROM), or other memory. The memory may store computer-executableinstructions to be executed by the processor as well as data that may bemanipulated by the processor. The storage devices may comprise floppydisks, hard disks, optical disks, tapes, or other storage devices forstoring computer-executable instructions and/or data.

One or more applications, including various modules, may be loaded intomemory and run on an operating system of computer 110 and/or consumerdevice 130. In one implementation, computer 110 and consumer device 130may each comprise a server device, a desktop computer, a laptop, a cellphone, a smart phone, a Personal Digital Assistant, a pocket PC, orother device.

Network 102 may include any one or more of, for instance, the Internet,an intranet, a PAN (Personal Area Network), a LAN (Local Area Network),a WAN (Wide Area Network), a SAN (Storage Area Network), a MAN(Metropolitan Area Network), a wireless network, a cellularcommunications network, a Public Switched Telephone Network, and/orother network.

Various inputs, outputs, configurations, and/or other informationdescribed herein as being stored or storable may be stored in one ormore databases (not illustrated in FIG. 1). Such databases may be,include, or interface to, for example, an Oracle™ relational databasesold commercially by Oracle Corporation. Other databases, such asInformix™, DB2 (Database 2) or other data storage, including file-based,or query formats, platforms, or resources such as OLAP (On LineAnalytical Processing), SQL (Standard Query Language), a SAN (storagearea network), Microsoft Access™ or others may also be used,incorporated, or accessed. The database may comprise one or more suchdatabases that reside in one or more physical devices and in one or morephysical locations. The database may store a plurality of types of dataand/or files and associated data or file descriptions, administrativeinformation, or any other data.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example of a user interface 200A for displayingan augmented view of a physical space of one or more geo-locations withsocial media and/or other content originating from the one or moregeo-locations, according to an aspect of the invention. The userinterfaces illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2C are for illustrative purposesonly. Various components may be added, deleted, moved, or otherwisechanged so that the configuration, appearance, and/or content of thescreenshots may be different than as illustrated in the Figures.Accordingly, the graphical user interface objects as illustrated (anddescribed in greater detail below) are exemplary by nature and, as such,should not be viewed as limiting.

User interface 200A may display a view of a physical space 210 augmentedby an augmented reality (“AR”) space 220. AR space 220 may be overlaidonto, embedded within, or otherwise displayed alongside physical space210 (e.g., a real-world space) such that graphical objects displayed onAR space 220 coincides with locations on physical space 210. In thismanner, graphical objects on AR space 220 may appear to be associatedwith physical objects (e.g., real-world objects) in physical space 210.Physical space 210 and AR space 220 are illustrated as being separatesolely for convenience of illustration.

A physical object 212 and its surroundings may be presented in a view ofthe physical space. Reality context module 114 (illustrated in FIG. 1)may obtain reality contextual information related to the view ofphysical object 212 and/or the geo-location where the physical object islocated.

For example, reality context module 114 may determine that physicalobject 212 is located at a particular geo-location. As described herein,the particular geo-location may be determined based on conventionallocation techniques associated with a device that is displaying userinterface 200A. For example, the device may include GPS sensors and/orother devices that can be used for localization. In someimplementations, physical object 212 and/or other feature of physicalspace 210 may be used to determine the particular geo-location such asby image recognition and comparison to a database of known objects, forexample.

Whichever location technique is used, augmented reality module 115 mayidentify social media and/or other content that was created from theparticular geo-location. Users may have posted social media content toone or more social media providers from the particular geo-location.Augmented reality module 115 may identify or otherwise obtain suchsocial media content and provide user interface 200A with the content.For example, user interface module 118 may include AR objects 222(illustrated in FIG. 2A as AR objects 222A, 222B, . . . , 222N)corresponding to the social media content that was created from theparticular geo-location. An AR object 222 when clicked or otherwiseselected may cause user interface 200A to provide additional or detailedin information related to the corresponding social media content. Spacepermitting, the social media content may be displayed within AR object222. If too many AR objects are included, they may be merged into an ARobject 222.

In some implementations, if information that indicates that a particularsocial media content item was created from or nearby physical object212, a corresponding AR object 222 may be positioned on AR space 220 tocorrespond to physical object, thereby providing the user with anindication of this.

FIG. 2B illustrates an example of a user interface 200B for displayingan augmented view of a physical space of one or more geo-locations withsocial media and/or other content originating from the one or moregeo-locations, according to an aspect of the invention.

User interface 200B may provide a view of physical space 210 augmentedwith AR space 220. Physical object 212 may be visible in the augmentedview. In the illustrated implementation, user interface 200B may includean indicator 230 that indicates that social media content was created atthe direction indicated. For example, reality context module 114 maydetermine an orientation of the device being used to display userinterface 200B. Such orientation may be determined based on sensorinformation from gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, and/or othersensors.

Augmented reality module 115 may determine content created from ageo-location of the physical space and, for example, an orientation atwhich the content was created. Augmented reality module 115 maydetermine that social media content is nearby a user's location but wascreated in an orientation that is different from the orientation of thedevice that is displaying user interface 200B.

Indicator 230 may indicate the direction of where social media contentwas created. For example, indicator 230 may indicate that social mediacontent was posted while the user who posted the content was in anorientation that is in a direction as indicated by the indicator. Inother words, if the device that displays user interface 200B turns inthe direction indicated by indicator 230, the social media content willbe made visible in AR space 220. In this manner, a user may explore agiven scenery to determine what previous users may have posted about thegiven scenery observed from the same perspective (e.g., orientation).For example, hobbyists such as stargazers may gain insight into whatprevious stargazers may have been observing from a particular vantagepoint and orientation (e.g., zenith, azimuth, etc.) toward the sky.Tourists may view what others have posted about a particular scenic viewor attraction.

FIG. 2C illustrates an example of a user interface 200C for displayingan augmented view of a physical space of one or more geo-locations withsocial media and other content originating from the one or moregeo-locations, according to an aspect of the invention. User interface200C may provide a view of physical space 210 augmented with AR space220. Physical object 216 may be visible in the augmented view. In theillustrated implementation, physical object 216 may be a building havingmultiple floors, which are individually associated with differentaltitudes. Reality context module 114 may recognize physical object 216based on conventional image recognition techniques and estimate alocation for each floor by, for example, recognizing windows or otherfloor-level indicating features. Reality context module 114 may thenassign altitudes for each floor based on predefined estimates distanceper floor (e.g., 12 feet per floor).

Augmented reality module 115 may determine content created from physicalobject 216 and, for example, at which altitude. Augmented reality module115 may correlate the altitude at which the social media and/or othercontent was created with the altitude of the physical object 216. Basedon the correlation, augmented reality module 115 may cause AR objects224 corresponding to the social media and/or other content to bedisplayed at their respective altitudes on physical object 216. Forexample, hotel or commercial building owners may post social mediacontent (which may include marketing or other branded materials) fromtheir respective buildings at different floors. User interface 200C maybe used to then view the building augmented with the social media postssuch that a passerby or other interested users may image the buildingand obtain an augmented image. Other uses are contemplated as well. Forexample, a user may enter the building and travel to various floors andreceive an augmented view of each floor based on social media contentthat was posted from that particular building and that particular floor.Furthermore, although illustrated as a building, physical object 216 mayinclude other types of structures for which different altitudes may beestimated and/or traversed for augmented views of the physical object.

FIG. 3 illustrates a process 300 for augmenting a view of a physicalspace of geo-locations with social media and/or other contentoriginating from the one or more geo-location, according to an aspect ofthe invention. The various processing operations and/or data flowsdepicted in FIG. 3 (and in the other drawing figures) are described ingreater detail herein. The described operations may be accomplishedusing some or all of the system components described in detail aboveand, in some embodiments, various operations may be performed indifferent sequences and various operations may be omitted. Additionaloperations may be performed along with some or all of the operationsshown in the depicted flow diagrams. One or more operations may beperformed simultaneously. Accordingly, the operations as illustrated(and described in greater detail below) are exemplary by nature and, assuch, should not be viewed as limiting.

In an operation 302, a view of the particular scenery may be obtained(e.g., photographed, videographed, imaged live, etc.). In an operation304, the imaged scenery may be processed. For example, one or morefeatures in the scenery may be processed using conventional imageprocessing techniques to recognize a location. A location may berecognized based the processing in an operation 306. For example, alandmark such as the Empire State Building may be recognized and alocation for the landmark may be obtained.

In an operation 308, content created from the location may be obtained.In an operation 310, the content may be used to augment the view of theparticular scenery with graphical elements that represent the contentcreated from the location.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process 400 of comparing contextual information ofcontent with contextual information of a physical space to be augmentedwith the content, according to an aspect of the invention.

In an operation 402, a view of a physical space may be obtained (e.g.,photographed, videographed, imaged live, etc.). In an operation 404,contextual information related to the physical space may be obtained.The reality contextual information may include a geo-location, anambient condition, an altitude, and/or other reality contextualinformation may be obtained. For example, if the physical space has beenimaged and stored as a photograph, the contextual information may beobtained from EXIF data or other data source that describes the imageand/or the physical space. On the other hand, if the physical space isbeing currently imaged (e.g., live), then the reality contextualinformation may be obtained from one or more sensors on-board the deviceused to image the physical space, other sensors, inputs by an operatorof the device, and/or other source of reality contextual information.

In an operation 406, contextual information that describes the content(e.g., social media content) may be obtained. In an operation 408, adetermination of whether contextual information of the content matchesthe reality contextual information. Such matching may be exact orin-exact (e.g., within a predefined and/or configurable threshold) andmay include matching location, orientation, ambient conditions,altitude, and/or other contextual information that can be automaticallymeasured or determined. In some implementations, such matching mayinclude matching information provided by users.

If a match is found, the view of the physical space may be augmentedwith graphical objects representative of the content whose contextualinformation matches the reality contextual information in an operation410. Processing may then proceed to an operation 412, where adetermination of whether more content is available for processing ismade. If more content is available, processing may return to operation406.

Other embodiments, uses and advantages of the invention will be apparentto those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification andpractice of the invention disclosed herein. The specification should beconsidered exemplary only, and the scope of the invention is accordinglyintended to be limited only by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for augmenting a view of a physicalspace at a geographically definable location with social media contentoriginating from the geographically definable location, wherein theaugmented view includes an augmented space that is coincident with thephysical space, the system comprising: one or more processors programmedby one or more computer program instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: obtain (i)a real-time or stored image of a physical space corresponding to ageographically definable location and (ii) reality contextualinformation that describes a context of the physical space, wherein theone or more processors are programmed to obtain the reality contextualinformation from one or more sensors that provide one or more sensormeasurements with respect to the physical space, and wherein the one ormore sensor measurements relate to an orientation of a first device thatincludes the one or more sensors, an ambient condition around the firstdevice, and/or an altitude of the first device; identify thegeographically definable location associated with the physical space;generate a first request to be provided to a first social media contentprovider, wherein the first request formats the geographically definablelocation in a first format specific to the first social media contentprovider; generate a second request to be provided to a second socialmedia content provider, wherein the second request formats thegeographically definable location in a second format specific to thesecond social media content provider, the second format being differentthan the first format; obtain at least a first social media content itemrelevant to the geographically definable location based on the firstformatted request, and first content contextual information thatdescribes a context in which the first social media content item wascreated; obtain at least a second social media content item relevant tothe geographically definable location based on the second formattedrequest, and second content contextual information that describes acontext in which the second social media content item was created;compare the reality contextual information with the first contentcontextual information; determine whether there exists a first matchbetween at least some of the reality contextual information and thefirst content contextual information, wherein the first match indicatesa match between the context of the physical space and the context inwhich the first social media content item was created; compare thereality contextual information with the second content contextualinformation; determine whether there exists a second match between atleast some of the reality contextual information and the second contentcontextual information, wherein the second match indicates a matchbetween the context of the physical space and the context in which thesecond social media content item was created; cause a first graphicalrepresentation of the first social media content item to be included inthe augmented space responsive to a determination that there exists thefirst match between at least some of the reality contextual informationand the first content contextual information, wherein the augmentedspace is coincident with the physical space such that the view isaugmented with the augmented space; cause a second graphicalrepresentation of the second social media content item to be included inthe augmented space responsive to a determination that there exists thesecond match between at least some of the reality contextual informationand the second content contextual information; cause the augmented viewto be provided to the first device; obtain a second orientation of asecond device used to create the first social media content item basedon the first content contextual information; determine that the secondorientation is different than the orientation of the first device suchthat the graphical representation of the first social media content itemis not in the augmented view; and cause an indication to be provided onthe augmented view associated with the physical space that indicates adirection in which to move the device to match the second orientation tobring the first graphical representation of the first social mediacontent item into the augmented view.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe one or more sensor measurements relate to an altitude of a devicethat includes the one or more sensors, and wherein the one or moreprocessors are programmed to: determine that the first social mediacontent item was created at an altitude that is the same as the altitudeof the device.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensormeasurements relate to an ambient condition of a device that includesthe one or more sensors, and wherein the one or more processors areprogrammed to: determine that the first social media content item wascreated at an ambient condition that is the same as the ambientcondition of the device.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one ormore sensor measurements relate to an altitude of a device that includesthe one or more sensors and an ambient condition related to the device,and wherein the one or more processors are programmed to: determine thatthe first social media content item was created at an altitude that isthe same as the altitude of the device; and determine that the firstsocial media content item was created at an ambient condition that isthe same as the ambient condition of the device.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein the image of the physical space comprises a stored image. 6.The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are furtherprogrammed to: identify a structure within the physical space; obtainaltitude information of the structure based on the reality contextualinformation; identify at least one floor of the structure based on thealtitude information, wherein the first content contextual informationindicates that the first social media content item was created from theat least one floor of the structure; and wherein to cause the firstgraphical representation of the first social media content item to beincluded in the augmented space, the one or more physical processors arefurther programmed to cause the first graphical representation of thefirst social media content item to be included in the augmented space inassociation with the at least one floor of the structure in theaugmented view.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or moreprocessors are further programmed to: receive one or more parametersused to filter in or out social media content items, wherein the firstformatted request specifies the one or more parameters.
 8. A method foraugmenting a view of a physical space at a geographically definablelocation with social media content originating from the geographicallydefinable location, wherein the augmented view includes an augmentedspace that is coincident with the physical space, the method beingimplemented on a computer having one or more processors programmed withone or more computer program instructions that, when executed by the oneor more processors, cause the computer to perform the method, the methodcomprising: obtaining, by the computer, (i) a real-time or stored imageof a physical space corresponding to a geographically definablelocation, and (ii) reality contextual information that describes acontext of the physical space, wherein the reality contextualinformation is obtained from one or more sensors that provide one ormore sensor measurements with respect to the physical space, and whereinthe one or more sensor measurements relate to an orientation of a firstdevice that includes the one or more sensors, an ambient conditionaround the first device, and/or an altitude of the first device;identifying, by the computer, the geographically definable locationassociated with the physical space; generating, by the computer, a firstrequest to be provided to a first social media content provider, whereinthe first request formats the geographically definable location in afirst format specific to the first social media content provider;generating, by the computer, a second request to be provided to a secondsocial media content provider, wherein the second request formats thegeographically definable location in a second format specific to thesecond social media content provider, the second format being differentthan the first format; obtaining, by the computer, at least a firstsocial media content item relevant to the geographically definablelocation based on the first formatted request, and first contentcontextual information that describes a context in which the firstsocial media content item was created; obtaining, by the computer, atleast a second social media content item relevant to the geographicallydefinable location based on the second formatted request, and secondcontent contextual information that describes a context in which thesecond social media content item was created; comparing, by thecomputer, the reality contextual information with the first contentcontextual information; determining, by the computer, whether thereexists a first match between at least some of the reality contextualinformation and the first content contextual information, wherein thefirst match indicates a match between the context of the physical spaceand the context in which the first social media content item wascreated; comparing, by the computer, the reality contextual informationwith the second content contextual information; determining, by thecomputer, whether there exists a second match between at least some ofthe reality contextual information and the second content contextualinformation, wherein the second match indicates a match between thecontext of the physical space and the context in which the second socialmedia content item was created; causing, by the computer, a firstgraphical representation of the first social media content item to beincluded in the augmented space responsive to a determination that thereexists the first match between at least some of the reality contextualinformation and the first content contextual information, wherein theaugmented space is coincident with the physical space such that the viewis augmented with the augmented space; causing, by the computer, asecond graphical representation of the second social media content itemto be included in the augmented space responsive to a determination thatthere exists the second match between at least some of the realitycontextual information and the second content contextual information;causing, by the computer, the augmented view to be provided to the firstdevice; obtaining, by the computer, a second orientation of a seconddevice used to create the first social media content item based on thefirst content contextual information; determining, by the computer, thatthe second orientation is different than the orientation of the firstdevice such that the graphical representation of the first social mediacontent item is not in the augmented view; and causing, by the computer,an indication to be provided on the augmented view that indicates adirection in which to move the device to match the second orientation tobring the first graphical representation of the first social mediacontent item into the augmented view.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereinthe one or more sensor measurements relate to an altitude of a devicethat includes the one or more sensors, and wherein the method furthercomprising: determining, by the computer, that the first social mediacontent item was created at an altitude that is the same as the altitudeof the device.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more sensormeasurements relate to an ambient condition of a device that includesthe one or more sensors, and wherein the method further comprising:determining, by the computer, that the first social media content itemwas created at an ambient condition that is the same as the ambientcondition of the device.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the one ormore sensor measurements relate to an altitude of a device that includesthe one or more sensors and an ambient condition related to the device,and wherein the method further comprising: determining, by the computer,that the first social media content item was created at an altitude thatis the same as the altitude of the device; and determining, by thecomputer, that the first social media content item was created at anambient condition that is the same as the ambient condition of thedevice.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more processorsare further programmed to: receive an indication that the first devicehas been moved to be in the second orientation; and cause the firstgraphical representation of the first social media content item to beprovided into the augmented view responsive to the indication that thedevice has been moved to be in the second orientation.